Back in
the early 60s my Mom and Dad used to watch for the postman’s delivery of The
Saturday Evening Post. This magazine always had a serialized story
running in it. When my parents spotted the Post’s delivery they would make a
beeline for the mailbox to see who would be the first to read the next chapter
of the story.
In 1962 it
was The Day of the Triffids. This serialized story went on to become a book
and then had several turns on the big screen as motion pictures in 1963 and in
2009.
The Post
is not the only one who has had success with short stories growing into books
in print.
My friend,
Carla Monticelli, posted her first book Red Desert as a serialized story on
her blog prior to publishing it as a book. She has since built up such a loyal
following that Amazon picked her book, The Mentor, up as one of their international
translations into English.
I have
personally posted several serialized Farloft stories on my blog which I have
since published as books in The Farloft Chronicles. People who follow me on
my blog will get a glimpse of the ‘first’ draft of some of my novels.
I have
some very loyal readers (over 115,000 blog hits and over 1,500 weekly readers) who
drop in to check
out the latest chapter of my current story on my Blog. I post each Saturday, because it is important to be consistent in order to build a following. I shift between genres, Scifi,
Paranormal and Fantasy.
There are
several stories archived on the site: “Fur & Frost – A Dragon Love Story"
(fantasy), "Yaltzee Shift" (paranormal) and "Planet Designation 014.666.2460"
(scifi/fantasy smashup), among many others. The main blog also has a link to the scifi “Star Trader Updates” blog which features my kickass Star Trader, 3su, on
her missions through the known verse.
So, I propose a designated day for serialized stories. I
hereby declare Saturday #SerialSaturday and may all you story bloggers out
there have as much success with your postings as John Wyndham, Carla and me.
Kick-butt idea. Not sure I'm that good yet to have something up every Sat. I can't even get myself on a word count unless I wrote the same word over and over 100 times; lol. I am getting there so maybe I'll kick in soon.
ReplyDeleteI think trying makes you better. Practice makes perfect, as they say :)
DeleteI like the idea, but I wonder: Do you have your entire story done before you start posting it? Or at least well outlined? The only time I've done serialized work is with fanfiction, but it would drive me crazy to start posting a story without having it at least mostly done, first.
ReplyDeleteMark, it depends on how the story unfolds. The last one I wrote Plant Designation...was written as it developed week-by-week. However, my current one, Threat of the Fire Demon has been keeping me awake LOL. I have it almost finished and I think it will be a book :)
DeleteWhatever works for the individual writer!
DeleteVery true. I like to be challenged by live writing, but it can get me in trouble LOL
Delete